Please note that this special issue edited by Jonas R. Kunst (BI Norwegian Business School & University of Oslo) & Milan Obaidi (Copenhagen University) is currently in progress. Articles will be added to this collection as they are published. The original call for papers is available below.
Why the ‘salad bar of ideologies’ does not help us understand contemporary violent extremism
By John Horgan & Morgan Shayler
The erosion of conceptual clarity in the study of political violence
By Arie Perliger
Extremism without ideology
Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler
Shifts and continuity in contemporary violent extremism: Moving toward a dynamic and developmental understanding?
By Cécile Rousseau & Samuel Veissière
The end of ideological violence
By Clark McCauley
System-disillusioned youth radicalize: The role of political alienation in the formation of political radicalism
By Marta Miklikowska & Tomasz Besta
Violent extremism continues to threaten global security and social cohesion. Although research on radicalization and deradicalization has expanded rapidly, we still lack integrative, evidence‑driven models that capture how psychological processes interact with technological, cultural, and political change. Advances in computational methods, longitudinal fieldwork, and intervention science now allow us to move beyond description toward precise, actionable knowledge.
This Special Issue—edited by Milan Obaidi ✉️ (University of Copenhagen) and Jonas R. Kunst ✉️(BI Norwegian Business School; University of Oslo), authors of the Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism and experts in the field—invites contributions that push the boundaries of how we understand, measure, and counter violent extremism. We especially welcome work that:
- Provides novel perspectives on the psychological drivers of extremist commitment
- Develops or tests integrative psychological models spanning individual, relational, and societal levels
- Uses innovative methodologies such as agent‑based modeling, machine learning on big text or multimedia datasets, experiments, immersive virtual reality, or social‑network analyses. Data driven research is encouraged.
- Provides developmental perspectives on the susceptibility to engage in violent extremism.
- Focuses on under-researched issues such as eco-extremism, normalization of violence, hybrid extremism (e.g., alliances between extremist groups), and the intersection of gender, ethnicity, race, and other factors.
- Investigates online and offline pathways into—and out of—violent extremist milieus
- Evaluates primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention or deradicalization interventions with robust causal inference
- Explores cross‑cultural or Global South perspectives that challenge Euro‑American theoretical dominance
- Assesses the psychological toll of extremist violence on perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, including mental‑health outcomes
- Addresses ethical, methodological, and open‑science challenges specific to extremism research
All manuscripts will undergo a rigorous, transparent, double‑blind peer‑review process, and reviewers are remunerated for their work, as per the journal’s standard. Prominent scholars such as John Horgan, Angel Gómez and Arie Kruglanski have already committed to contribute, and we invite you to join them in advancing an integrative, evidence-driven understanding of violent extremism.
Deadline and Article Formats
The deadline for submission is December 15, 2025 (earlier submission is encouraged). Accepted papers will be published online and open access on a rolling basis. We accept research articles (5,000 words, excluding references), research reports (2,000 words excluding references), review/perspective papers (up to 10,000 words, excluding references), and methods papers (no length limit). The word limit may be extended upon request. You can find more information in the author guidelines.
Article Processing Charge
Upon publication, authors are required to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC).We are committed to inclusivity and accessibility in academic publishing. Recognizing the financial constraints that may limit participation from scholars in economically disadvantaged regions as well as regions experiencing large-scale cuts in funding, we offer resources to waive the APC for a selection of eligible papers. We encourage authors for whom this consideration is relevant to reach out to us before submitting the paper.
Contact Information
For questions or pre‑submission inquiries, please write to:
We look forward to receiving cutting‑edge submissions that deepen and broaden the psychology of violent extremism and inform evidence‑based policy and practice.
